complexion - Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com

Complexion refers to the color of a person's skin, especially the face. If you have light skin, for example, you might be said to have a fair or pale complexion.

The general character of something can also be called its complexion. If your team's star quarterback is out with an injury, it will change the complexion of the next game and possibly the entire season. Complexion originally referred to the humors that in ancient Greek and Roman medicine supposedly made up a person's temperament and health. The word came from the Latin complexionem, or "combination," but as humorism fell out of favor, this definition of complexion also became obsolete.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: complexion

1	n v	texture and appearance of the skin of the face give a certain color to
2	n	a point of view or general attitude or inclination
3	n	a combination that results from coupling or interlinking

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: complexion

1

n texture and appearance of the skin of the face

Type of:: appearance, visual aspect
outward or visible aspect of a person or thing

n the coloring of a person's face

Synonyms:: skin color, skin colour

Types:: show 7 types...; hide 7 types...; blondness, fairness, paleness
the property of having a naturally light complexion; rosiness, ruddiness
a healthy reddish complexion; achromasia, lividity, lividness, luridness, paleness, pallidness, pallor, wanness
unnatural lack of color in the skin (as from bruising or sickness or emotional distress); sallowness
a sickly yellowish skin color; tawniness
the quality or state of being the color of tanned leather; darkness, duskiness, swarthiness
a swarthy complexion; whiteness
lightness or fairness of complexion

Type of:: color, coloring, colour, colouring
a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect

v give a certain color to

“The setting sun complexioned the hills”

Type of:: tinct, tinge, tint, touch
color lightly

2

n a point of view or general attitude or inclination

“he altered the complexion of his times”

“a liberal political complexion”

Type of:: point of view, stand, standpoint, viewpoint
a mental position from which things are viewed

n (obsolete) a combination of elements (of dryness and warmth or of the four humors) that was once believed to determine a person's health and temperament

Type of:: nature
the complex of emotional and intellectual attributes that determine a person's characteristic actions and reactions

3

n a combination that results from coupling or interlinking

“diphthongs are complexions of vowels”

Type of:: combination
a collection of things that have been combined; an assemblage of separate parts or qualities